Electrical retailers taking the mick Warranties sold by electrical retailers are a rip off according to nearly nine out of ten respondents to aPC Advisorpoll. Just 1.4 percent considers warranties to be good value for money, while 11 percent reckon that, though pricey, they are good for peace of mind. But 87.6 percent condemns warranties as a rip off. The results reinforce a recent mystery shopping investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which is now convinced that the British Retail Consortium’s self-regulation may not be working....

Antivirus vendors warn of Gokar worm The Goker worm is not destructive and has not yet infected many systems, but as with any mass-mailer worm, could become a nuisance as unsuspecting users spread it. Like other mass-mailing worms such as the Anna Kournikova worm or Badtrans, Gokar spreads through Microsofts’s Outlook and Outlook Express email clients. It activates when a user clicks on an attachment sent with the infected message, according to antivirus firms Symantec, F-Secure, and Trend Micro....

Special report: From hackers to terrorists There are growing concerns from civil liberty groups that computer hackers will be defined as terrorists if Britain follows in the footsteps of legislation currently under consideration in the US Congress. If US proposals go ahead the new Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) will widen the definition of what constitutes a terrorist act and the Bush administration’s authority to track communications will be expanded. Low-level computer crimes such as intrusion into company networks by outside parties would fall under the jurisdiction of the ATA....

Jack-of-all-trades to sell servers In line with its oft-touted intention of becoming the number one supplier to small businesses by 2004, PC World is set to put products where its mouth is. Over September and October, the superstore chain will be rolling out its own-brand Advent servers across its 101 outlets for the first time, following a pilot scheme in selected stores. For the smaller, 20-seat business, PC World will be selling an Advent server that can be ordered in-store with delivery taking place 48 hours later....

Bluetooth breakthrough Chipset megalith National Semiconductor has produced a Bluetooth chipset that could reduce the cost, size and power consumption of Bluetooth-enabled products. Mobile phones and palmtop PCs with Bluetooth short-range wireless capabilities are currently rarer than hens’ teeth and carry a premium price tag. They also draw much more power than conventional devices and are more bulky because of the extra components. Nat Semi’s new chipset requires less than half the power of its previous Bluetooth chipset, so the batteries of mobiles using it should last far longer....